Friday, February 3, 2012

Day one of chocolate moderation went very well. It was a hectic day which helped keep me away from the sweet stuff, but now here's the weekend. I do not keep chocolate in the house so the temptation will be nil. Wish me luck.

Thursday, February 2, 2012

I just read that actor Alec Baldwin, when he learned he has pre diabetes, stopped eating sugar cold turkey. I am addicted to chocolate and have been trying very hard to cut back. I am wondering if I have the gumption to stop chocolate cold turkey? I've done it before, nearly 20 years ago. But that didn't last very long. I think it's probably healthier to eat chocolate in moderation so I am going to try that. Wish me luck.

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Two weeks ago we passed the third anniversary of my mom's death. It was a bittersweet day of memories; of both a healthy mom and a sick mom. In three years we haven't come any closer to a cure. I worry about this disease and the affect it will have on this country as the baby boomer generation ages. It is going to be a tidal wave of dementia I'm afraid.
The President wants a cure by 2025. But Congress wants to cut spending for everything, who is going to fund this research? No one wants to pay more taxes and those with money are lobbying against increasing taxes. Researchers don't work for free and companies need cash infusion to work on a cure. I'm told that Alzheimer's is complex disease; finding a cure it going to take time and lots of research. Meanwhile more succumb and more are diagnosed every day. Caregivers are stretched to the limits. I don't know what the answer is in a time where people are struggling to find jobs. It's a heartbreaking dilemma that will not be solved quickly.

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Thanksgiving is here again, seems that the years fly by way too fast. I am thankful for friends and family and the memories of Thanksgivings past. This time of year I really miss my mom and dad; my mom made a wonderful Thanksgiving meal. We would always dress in our best and either spend the day at our house with one set of grandparents, or we would travel to Detroit to be with everyone. My aunt would host Thanksgiving in Detroit. Later after I moved out of the house my parents would come to my house and Mom and I would make the meal in my apartment. The last Thanksgiving with my dad was bittersweet because it was the last time that we were all together as a family. And we all knew that it would be the last time that we would all be together.
Later we would repeat the scene with my mom. Her last Thanksgiving with family was 3 years ago. I miss her so much.
This year I am grateful to be spending Thanksgiving with good friends.
Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends. I hope that you find yourselves blessed and that you have much to be thankful for.

Friday, August 5, 2011

Vel' d'Hiv Roundup - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I am reading a book called "Sarah's Key" which is about the roundup of Jews who were living in Vichy France during the Nazi occupation. On July 16, 1942, 13,000+ Jewish families where taken from their homes in Paris by French police and sent first Vel d'Hiv, a velodrome in Paris where they remained for several days with no food or water, forced to live like animals in unsanitary conditions. I had never known about this terrible piece of French history. The mothers, fathers and children were forced from their homes. Later they were taken to a camp outside of Paris where the families were separated from the fathers, the mothers and children were allowed to remain together briefly before being separated so that the parents could be shipped off to Auschwitz for extermination. The children were left, starving and without their parents in the camp until they too were relocated and sent to gas chambers. I am appalled by this awful, horrendous piece of French history. I cannot believe that the police would round up innocents at the behest of the Nazis and willingly starve them and sentence them to death like they were no better than animals. This is a part of history that we must never forget so as never to repeat it.

Thursday, July 7, 2011

July 1, 2005; Minnesota state government partially shuts down. I am out of work for 10 days. Fast forward to July 1, 2011. Another government shutdown. This time government shuts down fully with only critical services remaining open. I was laid off as of July 1. Budget talks are at a stalemate, the Democrats want taxes along with budget cuts. The Republicans want to cut everything including the number of employees in the state work force. I'm tired of being a political hostage, yet I agree with the governor who would rather not throw the most vulnerable citizens of the state under the bus. He prefers a budget that mixes cuts with a tax in the wealthiest Minnesotans. I cannot reconcile my values with a party that only wants to hurt the most vulnerable citizens by making cuts to badly needed services while letting millionaires continue to pay less than the rest of us.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

"Living within our means". That phrase has become a mantra for politicians in this day and age. They say that government must learn to live within it's means, like families have learned to live within their means. When families need to live within in a budget, they learn to make cuts, like shopping for groceries more efficiently and cheaply, cutting down on expenses and saving money where ever and when ever possible. Politicians think that this same scenario should work for government, and to some extent that is true. However, they way politicians are going about making cuts and lowering the budget is draconian. Families would never sacrifice a family member, such as an elderly parent, disabled child or ill family member in order to 'balance their budget'. Politicians seem to think this is OK; they choose to balance the budget on the backs of society's most vulnerable, the poor, the elderly, children and the disabled, by making cuts to government programs that are lifelines for these families. A family would find a way to raise their revenue, either by taking on additional work or increasing their revenue some other way. Politicians have been cutting and cutting to the point where there is no more to cut. It's time to look at a new source of revenue, and that is to raise taxes on those Americans who can well afford to shoulder the burden. Over the last decade Americans have paid the lowest taxes in generations. A report out recently indicates that wealthy Americans paid the least amount in taxes than they have in generations and some Americans paid no taxes. Meanwhile the US government has been engaged in two wars. Money that could have gone to health care, education and entitlements such as Medicare was instead spent in Iraq, where our brave soldiers put their lives on the line, but did their efforts and bravery do anything for Americans? I'm not saying that their efforts were in vain, but I do question the decision to send them into war. Meanwhile, back home in the US, we are preparing to fight a different kind of war, the war against Alzheimer's. The silver tsunami that is about to engulf the US health care system as baby boomers age, could quite possibly bankrupt this country's healthcare system. Paul Ryan has proposes changes to Medicare that would drastically cut benefits just as we are embarking on this war. Patients, medical professionals and caregivers are already stressed beyond limit. Can you imagine what it will be like in a decade or less? Alzheimer's is predicted to increase many-fold. We are being short-sighted if we think that cutting Medicare to balance the budget is a good thing. It's time to bite the bullet and understand that we need our priorities straight if we are to remain free.